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Councillor Doug Ford has laid out his most detailed vision for Toronto’s eastern waterfront, with a monorail, boat-in hotel and “megamall.”

"We had 15 people in the room and everyone’s jaw just dropped when they saw it. It is spectacular, just spectacular,” Doug Ford said about his pitch to an unspecified group. (RENE JOHNSTON / TORONTO STAR FILE PHOTO)

By David Rider and Daniel DaleUrban Affairs Bureau

Tues., Aug. 30, 2011

Councillor Doug Ford has laid out his most detailed vision for Toronto’s eastern waterfront, with a monorail skimming along the shore, a 1.6-million-square-foot “megamall” and island airport users boating right into their hotel lobby.

Ford, the brother and closest adviser of Mayor Rob Ford, laid out his vision in an interview Tuesday morning on CBC Radio’s Metro Morning.

The interview came on the heels of the Ford administration revealing it wants to seize control of port lands redevelopment from Waterfront Toronto, a tripartite agency to which Ottawa, Queen’s Park and the city have each contributed $500 million.

In the interview, Doug Ford laid out a much grander vision than Waterfront Toronto’s existing plan — lauded by planners and developers, but criticized by the Ford administration as moving too slowly—for a vibrant residential community that would incorporate stores and parks.

“What we’d like to do is have a monorail system that’s running right from the Pan Am Games (site) right along the lakefront and stops at Union Station and Ontario Place and right across the front of the lake,” Ford said.

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“And then it would hang a quick little right, right down Cherry St., and as it goes down Cherry St. the first stop would be right at the end of the pier.

“You would have some just beautiful iconic buildings, hotels, you’d be able to get to the hotel from boat, from train or from the airport and it’d be the only hotel that you’d be able to get off the plane, throw your luggage in a boat and pull right into the lobby and unload it.

“And the second stop would be down by Lake Ontario Park, Cherry Beach, and you’d have just 250 acres of beautiful beachfront. You’d be able to picnic, bike, jog and then the next stop would be the megamall.

“It would be 1.6 million square feet of one of the most prestigious malls in Canada. We’d try to attract Nordstrom and Bloomingdales and Macy’s ...

“And the last stop is the Hearn Station, and that would be a multi-use facility with ice rinks on the base and soccer pitches on the top, retail on the back end and then the monorail would come back up to Union Station. It would be absolutely spectacular, it could be the most prestigious address in Canada and we need to develop it.”

The Ford administration has not publicly released its detailed vision for the port lands but the councillor said it made an impression when unveiled recently to an unspecified group.

“We had 15 people in the room and everyone’s jaw just dropped when they saw it. It is spectacular, just spectacular.”

Later, at a news conference at City Hall, Ford said he has received interest from developers but would not provide details. He said he wants the city to sell its roughly 170 waterfront acres to developers who would pay for the attractions plus infrastructure such as roads.

The councillor said he hopes to have looming over all of it the world’s biggest Ferris wheel, similar to England’s London Eye, but that would be “just a cash cow.”

Ford’s interview on CBC Radio — after he and his brother have long been cool to the public broadcaster — seemed aimed at putting pressure on Premier Dalton McGuinty’s Liberal government, which is on the cusp of a provincial election and is resisting the city’s port lands takeover plan.

The office of provincial Infrastructure Minister Bob Chiarelli told the Star on Monday that “the province remains committed to Waterfront Toronto’s mandate and their ongoing work in revitalizing Toronto’s waterfront.”

And Glen Murray, minister of research and innovation, said a city decision to pull out of the port lands partnership would jeopardize the broader waterfront strategy. “All of the projects are interrelated; you can’t just pull one piece out. It’s important that governments stick to the plan and not change the plan halfway through,” Murray said.

The office of federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty would not comment directly on the city’s proposal, but said federal participation in Waterfront Toronto is “winding down” because $492 million of its $500 million contribution has been spent.

The city can negotiate to withdraw from the port lands deal and, if those talks fail, unilaterally pull out within nine months.

Mayor Ford’s executive committee will next week vote on a city manager recommendation to take back its port land properties because Waterfront Toronto has not come up with a plan to pay for the flood prevention project that must be completed before development can proceed.

Council, however, approved the $634 million flood prevention strategy just last year, on the advice of senior bureaucrats, on the understanding that a funding plan would come later. Funding was not expected to be found by now, said Waterfront Toronto spokeswoman Michelle Noble.

“They asked us to report back with a business case. And that’s something we’ve been working on.”

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